


First Impressions

by PatchworkIdeas



Series: WinterFRE 2020 [33]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Not Related, Crushes, M/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatchworkIdeas/pseuds/PatchworkIdeas
Summary: Kili wakes up with a hack job tattoo. He’s also crushing on the only tattoo artist who can possibly turn that into something beautiful instead.
Relationships: Fíli/Kíli (Tolkien)
Series: WinterFRE 2020 [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604650
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36
Collections: GatheringFiKi - Winter FRE 2020





	First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Prompt Nr.113:  
> Tattoo studio AU: Whelp I got this tattoo when I was drunk and I heard you’re the best please save me AND STOP LAUGHING I BEG YOU

“I was drunk.”

“I hear that often.”

“I swear I wouldn’t have chosen something like that otherwise. I mean, I did want a tattoo someday, but I hadn’t been able to decide and that was definitely not something I would have chosen!”

“Understandably.”

“You can save me, right? I don’t care what you turn it into, free canvas, just please, please, please make it good.”

A chuckle answered his desperate rambling this time, though the hand holding the tattoo machine stayed perfectly still. Kili didn’t know how the other did it, but was just glad the laughter had stopped. To be honest, he would have loved to hear it before - just not in this circumstance.

Fili was legendary as a tattoo artist - and incredible handsome too. Kili knew it wasn’t just skin deep though. He had seen the other occasionally, always a kind smile or a helping hand, the kind of saint that could both help old ladies over the street and cheer anyone up with a well placed joke. He was charismatic and incredible and Kili had been saving up to get a tattoo from him for over a year now. Not because Fili was so expensive - though he wasn’t cheap, that’s for sure - but because Kili had wanted to make an impression. Maybe go home with a second lifetime addition, too, aside from just the one on his skin.

Kili had definitely made an impression. And not the kind that made him boyfriend material. He honestly couldn’t remember how it happened, and it wasn’t impossible one of his drunk friends had done the hack job, sick of his whining about tattoos he couldn’t find the courage to get. It was the only explanation that wouldn’t land him in jail for killing the person who put that thing on him.  
He really should rethink his friends.

Fili, still humoring him, agreed.

At this point Kili pretended the tears in his eyes where from pain - physical pain, that is.  
He had no chance anymore anyway. If this was the only conversation they would ever have, then he might as well make it last, rather than long awkward silences that would etch themselves in his soul just as permanently as the ink did.

At least he would have the tattoo. Something that Fili choose for him, even. Something to remember him by, when Kili disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again.

Getting a tattoo might be painful, but he still wished it would never end.

Of course, that was impossible.

Eventually, Fili put gauze on the area - now much bigger than before - and told him the rules. No water on it for a while and stuff. Kili was listening, because how could he not listen to that voice for as long as he could, knowing it would be the last time? But the tears still kept flowing, and his excuse had probably never held anyway.

“So when do you have time, again? Next week? The one after?”

The question threw him, enough even to temporarily stop the tears, though not the stone lodged in his throat. As such, his answer might have resembled a “what?”, but mostly likely didn’t. Of all the times to not find words, after all his stupid rambling before.

“You offered me a canvas, I accepted. With my current plans this would take about… half a year I would guess, until it’s complete? Unless I get some more ideas for finer details, or on how to make it even bigger.” Fili smirked at him, completely confident that Kili wouldn’t mind. He didn’t, (of course he didn’t, if only he could meet him again!), but that was still, very, very much not what he had expected.

His own joy and exuberance only had a moment to show up on his face before it fell flat, the numbers running through his head.  
Whatever it would end up costing, he wouldn’t have enough. Wouldn’t have enough for a long time.

“Thank you, really, but I don’t know how to pay for something so big.” He answered with a heavy heart. He wanted to, oh he wanted to, but not being able to pay him would leave an even worse impression than he already did. He couldn’t do it.  
There was a hysterical part of him that told him to just go to the next bank, or loan shark, anywhere. But he squashed it. He had enough of bad decisions for a while. 

But Fili just smiled, kindly, and leaned closer, as if imparting a secret: “Let me make you a deal - you don’t sneak a peak at the tattoo until it’s done and I’ll forget to charge you. Will be our little secret. Of course, we would have to see each other pretty often, as I would be helping you take care of it.” The bell tingled in the background, barely detectable over Kili’s pounding heartbeat. “Maybe we can talk more about it over dinner? Tonight at eight? What do you say?”

Kili just about managed to stutter out a, “Yes. I’ll be here.” before Fili gently steered him out of the shop, a smile already on for the next customer.

Or maybe for him.

He walked in a daze, no direction in mind, for almost half an hour, before the pain forced him to sit down, rest a bit. Catch up with the implications.

He had made the worst first impression ever.  
He had a date.  
And a boatload of more pain and pleasure in his future.  
If the date worked out.  
It was a date, right? Fili had asked him out for dinner after all, right? That was totally a date, but what if it wasn’t???

Kili obsessed for hours, but in the end, he still showed up early in his best clothes. He wanted to appear confident, smooth, but he was so enthusiastic he feared he came off more like an overexcited puppy.

But Fili stayed calm, that wonderful smile showing off his dimples, before an almost mischievous air came over him. Those blue eyes looked him up and down, slowly, intent, not trying to hide at all, before resting on his again. 

“It’s a _pleasure_ to see you again, Kili.”

Kili gulped, squared his shoulders, and let his worries fall away.  
Fili hadn’t run away yet, and tonight, with this second chance, Kili vowed to give him plenty of reasons to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note:  
> I couldn’t work it in because it’s from Kili’s view and Kili doesn’t know it, but I imagined this swirly, snorkely dick on Kili’s shoulder blade. Kili can only see it in the mirror, with contortions, so he doesn’t realize his friends hid the message: “Please fuck him, Fili <3” inside it. Which is what had Fili laughing in the beginning. Not his first “save me from my drunken mistakes” job, but certainly the first time he had been hit on like _that_. Did leave quite an impression ;-D


End file.
